A maritime passenger link between Cyprus and Greece is expected to take shape in the coming months as a number of operators have responded to a tender through the e-Procurement System of the Treasury of the Republic of Cyprus, the Shipping Deputy Ministry has announced.

The deadline for submitting bids expired on Friday and more than one operator has shown an interest, Deputy Minister Vassilis Demetriades said. 

He expressed his satisfaction, noting that “we are not celebrating, but we consider this as an important step before the last one, which is the evaluation and the award of the tender. The great and painstaking effort we have made as a deputy ministry team has paid off, as we managed to attract the interest of economic operators for a tender whose peculiarities made the project very difficult,” he added.

He attributed the attraction of carriers’ interest to the renegotiation of the terms with the European Commission and the redrafting of the tender document.

This week, he stressed, the submitted bids will be put before the Evaluation Committee with a view to awarding the tender as soon as possible.

This article was previously published at ekathimerini.com.